Summer Service

I am planning to have a month off between ending my fellowship and starting medical school. I would love to participate in some kind of service that would be rewarding and fun during that time. I have considered everything from volunteering in NYC to returning to Ghana, where I did my thesis research. I have thought about projects that are health-related or entirely health-unrelated (Farming through WWOOF?). But now I need to start actually planning. Any ideas? Has anyone worked on a service project they really loved that might be a good summer project for me? Please let me know!

We Have Several Dreams

It's been a long time since I posted. The holidays are always a hectic (and sometimes stressful) time for the staff at the Carole Robertson Center, but we pushed through and now that we're back to our regularly scheduled programming I am regaining my sense of excitement.

Today I walked around the Center with a couple of the girls in the youth program asking kids, teens, and staff, "What's your dream?" and brandishing a voice recorder. We'd done the same thing, with a different series of questions, a couple months ago when we were building the documentary theater piece that we will be performing in late February; we interviewed participants and staff about their experience at the Carole Robertson Center, their hopes for the future, and their knowledge of Carole Robertson, the Center's namesake. The theater piece, which I'm directing, will be performed by a group of seven really enthusiastic girls and one earnest boy from the Youth Program, and will be part of our flotilla of Black History Month projects.

Back to "What's your dream?" In a couple weeks we're hosting a fashion show/performing arts showcase called Rip the Runway, which is a chance for the youth program participants to strut their stuff. Rip the Runway audience members will eat dinner at tables with centerpieces devoted to the dreams of each interviewee. Most of the kids we talked to described what they wanted to be when they grew up, and many wanted to be doctors, nurses, or teachers. When asked why, they said they wanted to help people. A couple of the staff members interviewed talked about what they would be doing if they weren't doing this (music, art, and writing, mostly, and I am definitely guilty of falling into this category), while others took the question more generally and told us that their dream was for world peace.

Nice. After the craziness of the past few months, that's my dream now too.

Glimpse of the UCSF Breast Care Center

Happy New Year everyone!!!

It’s been roughly 6 months since I started my project 55 fellowship at the UCSF Breast Care Center and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my gap year between college and medical school. Matt and Alyse have done a great job of describing components of our job that we all share at the BCC, such as Decision Services, so I’ll talk a little more about some specific projects that I’m working on.

My position is sort of unique in that I work at two different UCSF campuses. For half of the week I am at Mount Zion with Matt and Alyse, and for the other half of the week I am at Parnassus, which is UCSF’s main campus. While being split between two different campuses can be at times hectic and crazy, I’m thankful for the different projects that I’ve been able to work on at the two locations. At Mount Zion, I work on two clinical studies, one of which involves consenting patients for collection of blood and bone marrow samples while they are sedated in the operating room. This is really cool because it allows me to have patient contact and view surgeries. I’m also working on some other projects looking into the role of the immune system in breast cancer and how the presence of different immune cells in the tumor may affect prognosis.

At Parnassus, I am working in a bioengineering lab, which is a completely new experience for me. I did get a MSE certificate so the engineering world isn’t completely foreign to me but there is definitely a steep learning curve. My project involves looking at the mechanical effects of intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) on the tumor microenvironment. IORT is a relatively new procedure of delivering radiation to the patient while they are in the operating room. After the tumor is taken out of the breast, an applicator is inserted into the tissue cavity where radiation is then locally delivered. The applicator then comes out after which the surgeon can close up the incision. By using the tissue that the surgeon takes out from the breast right before and after delivering radiation, we can look into the effects of radiation on tissue composition and organization as well as changes in cell to cell signaling.

Besides the work I am doing, I am loving San Francisco and trying to take advantage of all it has to offer! The city is an awesome place to live with so much diversity and culture. Public transportation can take you anywhere in the city and there’s always a bunch of events that are open to the public on the weekends. I’m looking forward to further exploring SF and all it has to offer in the next 6 months and will update everyone again!

Mad about MADNESS

Happy New Year from the New Heights office!

This month has been incredibly busy for me and the rest of the New Heights team, as we figure out our strategies for growing and changing in the year ahead. Our biggest fundraiser, MADNESS, is coming up in a few months, and the entire team is already busy making plans for the venue and event. It’s amazing how much time and effort goes into the production of an event this large (we typically have several hundred people in attendance) and how much we all depend on one another to get everything done on time. I also think it’s really inspiring how much help we get from a much larger network of civically-minded individuals and organizations. At larger events like MADNESS, and other opportunities within the nonprofit community, it’s plain to see that there is a whole movement that is dedicated to ensuring educational equity and fighting NYC-area poverty. Knowing that I’m part of something that is so much larger than my individual position really encourages me to bring my all to my work.

I’ve been pretty impressed by how much interest and involvement there’s been from the larger New York community. Our event planning committees draw upon tons of different subcultures, from artists to business-owners to athletes, and each individual has their own reasons for getting involved and their own ideas of how they can contribute. Learning how others approach civic engagement and nonprofit work is, I think, a pretty crucial step in appreciating how my work creates meaning for myself in the world. The side conversations that I’ve had in the office and at fundraising events have been learning experiences that add a lot of depth to everything that I’m learning on the job.

MADNESS is going to require a lot of work from everyone in the office, but I’m really excited to see how everything comes together – and to hopefully meet some interesting new people in the process!

New Year, New Projects, Same Old Stereotypes

The new year has gotten off to a great start here in Southeast DC at Achievement Preparatory Academy.  Our brand new online application went live on January 2^nd and we’ve already got 10 applications for the 2012-2013 school year.  My old supervisor decided to leave the school, but my new boss is actually someone that worked here before and has just come back.  We’re already forming a great working partnership and I’m shadowing her on school tours for prospective parents so that pretty soon I can start giving the tours myself.  Tomorrow (yes, work on Saturday) we’re going to the DC Charter School Expo at the Washington Convention Center, so hopefully we’ll drum up a lot of interest and get some new applications in.  Exciting!  Recruitment is a huge task that lasts basically the entire first half of the calendar year (while enrollment / registration / paper work follow up / residency verification is the second half) and I’ll be playing a crucial role.  If my APA recruitment is anything like my recruiting new freshman for the Princeton University Band we’ll be sitting pretty for the next school year.

I want to share a story with you, avid readers of our blog, that my boss shared with us yesterday at staff close-out.  A man from an organization that might be giving a grant to our school was here visiting yesterday from California.  He was trying to catch an early morning cab from Dupont Circle, which is a super-ritzy fancy part of NW DC to our school, which is located in notorious Ward 8 of SE DC.  To be blunt, and describe the difference between NW and SE in black and white terms, NW is white, SE is black.  Three different cab drivers turned down the man when he asked to be taken over to Wahler Place SE.  One cabby even told him, “Why would you want to go there?  Nothing good ever comes out of that place.”  And this man, who hasn’t been to our school before but has talked extensively to our leader and founder, and read the press releases, defended our school and said, well let me tell you about this amazing school in this not-so-great neighborhood.  Clearly, you must not have heard of them if you’re going to say things like that.  So maybe nothing else good comes out of our seedy, run-down neighborhood in SE, but WE are a good thing.  A great thing.  Our DC CAS scores show that we have completely eliminated the achievement gap between our students and white students in DC, and gone most of the way towards eliminating that disparity in reading.  I feel like I constantly have to defend where I work to new people I meet, those who are shocked or worried about me for being a young white female working in this community.  And yes, I’ve endured shocking cat calls and harassment at the local gas station and Burger King, but the things that we do within the walls of this school make it all worth it.  I am so proud to be a part of this school and I’m excited to play such a role in the future of the school.  Because truly, the school would not exist without its students, so we need to get butts in those seats!

p.s.  Not to be outdone by Subha, check out my advisory’s entry into APA’s Holiday door decorating contest.  We got second place, but only because 1^st place used a Christmas card that plays music to enhance their door.

Highs and Lows of the Day

High point of the day: watching a foster baby I haven't worked with in several months walk confidently towards me! The last time I saw him a few months ago he could barely sit up.

Low point of the day: assisting birth parents in taking the right steps towards avoiding eviction. Just recently these parents received a notice stating that they must produce nearly eleven thousand dollars within the next few days or else face eviction.

And on a lighter note, Happy new year! This is an exciting time for Project 55 as a new round of applicants are entering the interview stage. Best of luck to everyone with interviews and upcoming finals!

Resolutions

Courtesy of http://moninavelarde.com/newyears/.

Have fun generating your own resolutions - and happy new year! :)